So, how are people reading digitally? We thought the answer would overwhelmingly be that they are reading on tablets but to our surprise, when we categorize the results by device type, we find that dedicated ebook readers, as in 2012, remain the preferred device. It is important to note that this does not mean that purchasing of tablets isn’t on the rise: we didn’t ask what devices people were buying, but what devices they were using to read ebooks on.

Tablet use for e-reading saw a decrease from 34% in the first quarter of 2013 to 23% in the fourth quarter. Mobile use increased steadily through 2013 up to 11% at the end of the year. Although mobile devices still rank in last place out of the four types of e-reading devices surveyed, this steady growth over 2013 marks a significant increase. At the beginning of the year, respondents who reported reading on their mobile phone were predominantly from the youngest demographic (18–29), but by the end of the year, there was a more even distribution among age groups.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.